This analysis of the NMW’s initial impact in the apparel industry focuses on organisational and institutional factors in explaining the effects on pay and related issues. The NMW had a marked effect on national terms and conditions, in particular raising the minimum earnings level. At the...

This article explores the role of the citizen-consumer as an actor in public service industrial relations. Based on research into the New Types of Worker programme in social care, the article considers how new work roles engage end-users as citizen-consumers in work relations and their...

This article examines role redesign in the National Health Service (NHS), which has been central to the Labour government's modernisation agenda, focusing on the role of health care assistants (HCAs). Drawing on data from two acute hospital trusts, this article focuses on variation in HCA roles...

This article focuses on an ad hoc body, the UK Local Government Pay Commission, as a means of developing a broader argument on the relationship between collective dispute resolution and the nature of public service reform. It suggests that the character of disputes in this sector and the...

This article considers whether and how shifts in the division of labour in the context of organizational change lead to the empowerment or degradation of workplace roles. It focuses on the emergence of assistants in the British public services and, in particular, whether this leads to the...

Purpose - Evaluates the role of teaching and social work assistants in the UK public services sector. Design/methodology/approach - Outlines how public service modernisation has resulted in the development of the assistant role (supplements the job of professionals). Focusing on teaching (TA)...

A prominent feature of the restructuring of work in the public services has been the growing importance of assistant roles. This article examines the regulation of teaching assistant (TA) roles in 10 primary schools. It examines entry into TA roles, the structure of TA roles and the consequences...

Although growth has occurred in contract employment arrangements both in the public and private sectors, scant research has been conducted on the organizations and employees affected by these arrangements.This study examines the employment relationship of long-term contracted employees using a...

This article re-connects with structure-agency debates to explore the development of the social work assistant role. Drawing upon an analytical framework based on the tenets of critical realism, it seeks to explain the evolution of this role across three local authorities by looking at the...